Complaint against the Commission (technical problem with uploading docs)

I am also part of the unlucky people who have experienced this technical problem of failing to upload the documents, even though we are SURE that we did. Whatever the Commission says, it must come from them ! Can I ask to ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENCED THIS PROBLEM to tell which browser they used ? I used Mozilla Firefox.

Also, I am determined to fight here. There is a clear issue of transparency, and the European Ombudsman could help. Or we could do a petition, to see how many of us faced this issue. What do you think ?

I used Chrome. I think contacting an Ombudsman would be better than a petition since the latter would rely on us and our limited means to reach the people who had this problem and would not clearly show who of the petitioners are personally affected by this problem (since sympathisers could, I presume, sign as well).

Here the comments related to this topic which I have posted in the thread "" before this thread was made:

TomJV wrote:

Hello everyone,Like Lukas, I and a friend of mine did not pass the eligibility check. However, we got the following message: "You have not uploaded the supporting documents". I cannot say for certain for my friend, but I am positive that I did upload the compliation of the supporting documents succesfully. I have already sent an email asking what they mean with this message since I wasn't sure if they meant that I left out documents or that they didn't receive the pdf I made at all. My questions are the following:

- Has anyone experienced the same? (Or other technical errors such as Aga and Irruiz.)

- Is there a way to contest this? If so, what steps should be taken?

TomJV wrote:

LukasCZ wrote:

hello Tom, what email did you use? Greetings. Lukas.

Dear Lukas,I emailed to eac hyphen stages at ec dot europa dot eu* (the adress which you received your notification from). I asked around a bit and apparently the Traineeship Office does not have a phone number you can call and this is the email you need to use. As you perhaps already found out the link to "Contact on Europa" on ec dot europa dot eu slash stages* will only lead you to a page displaying 404 error so I wouldn't directly know how to find any other email address.

*Signs are typed out since I can't add external links or emails for 7 days as a new member.

TomJV wrote:

bubble_of_euro wrote:

For those unfortunate others who have also been informed they failed the eligibility check because they did not upload any documents, when they felt they had taken the necessary steps to do so, I received the following reply presently:

"Indeed, I have already consulted the IT unit. Unfortunate as it is that many candidates declared having sent documents, which we did not receive, a very good number of pre-identified candidates (certainly far more than half), succeeded in sending in their files. Thus, the responsibility cannot be ascribed to an IT failure in the EC."

Make of that what you will...I certainly know what I make of it.

Commiserations to the unfortunates, and congrats to those who passed the eligibility test.

Dear "bubble_of_euro",Thank you for that information. Would it be possible for you to place the original email here? I would welcome such a thread (but I'm not going to mess around creating threads myself, not being acquainted with the forum's workings yet). The Dutch government has an office which supports people interested in working at the EU. I already emailed them and will inform them of this reply if/when possible. I would suggest others to do the same with parallel organisations in their respective member states. It seems to me like a very easy and flimsy excuse to not have to expand an already sufficiently large pool of Blue Book candidates.

Hi all, so I will just go ahead and place my entire communication with the Commission here:

EC: "I confirm that we have not received any supporting documents from you. This means that you did not complete the uploading the the end"

Me: This is highly disappointing news, as I definitively uploaded my file several days before the 14 November deadline. Obviously I don't have proof to confirm this, but from trainee forum discussions, it seems I am not the only one in this predicament, which would suggest a technical fault has penalised numerous would-be eligible candidates...I hope at least by bringing this to your attention, it will be addressed in future"

EC: "Indeed I have already consulted the IT Unit. Unfortunate as it is that many candidates declared having sent documents, which we did not receive, a very good number of pre-identified candidates (certainly far more than half), succeeded in sending their files. Thus, the responsibility cannot be ascribed to an IT failure in the EC."

...So by this logic, as long as a problem only concerns a minority, it is not a problem that needs to be accounted for. I wonder if this is the modus operandi of the entire EC? Aside from launching a complaint against the attitude of the personnel in question for their unrivalled display of 'je m'en foutisme', I don't really know what are the appropriate next steps - but I guess if we all corroborate the technical difficulty, it will make it difficult for them to pretend we all lied about uploading.

Most people affected by this might not have hard proof. However, there is a lot of objective data which several people might have available which can serve as circumstantial evidence such as:

- Browser history (from the date of uploading, but also the day after; a person who forgot might still look at the website the day after, but if a person did upload the document that person is less likely to have gone to the webportal again on the following day).- Chat history on Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.- The file properties (especially the dates of creation and modification) of the various documents you scanned.- The file properties (especially the dates of creation and modification) of the final compiled document which you uploaded.

I would suggest you secure this data in some way or another (e.g. through storing printscreens of your browser history somewhere or saving files on a usb stick).

Also, I think that for now it is most useful to approach the Ombudsman individually (to save the time and effort spent on deciding who does what and of gathering our cases and structuring them in a comprehensive fashion), but refer to the discussion on this forum as an indication of the more widespread nature of this problem.

Dear Baionarra,So far as I can remember (since I didn't expect anything had gone wrong I had no reason to remember this in great detail) I uploaded the file as follows on 13/11/2016: I first had to click 'choose file', then chose the pdf file from my computer after which it was automatically uploaded. Beneath the link there was a disclaimer warning that only one file could be uploaded and confirmed. I checked the file name and then confirmed this after which the disclaimer and the two clickable items (one for choosing a file and the other for confirming) dissapeared from the page. I don't remember seeing a phrase with any confirmation.

Hey Baionarra, To be honest there was no confirmation button, I actually only succeeded after trying twice to upload my file. I also clearly remember that sketchy feeling of doing something wrong, since the website literally absorbed my docs and did not produce any kind of confirmation or potential further steps. So I still truly believe it might be partially a technical error but so far no response from the EC giving any kind of clarification; I have been trying to contact them the other day as bubble_of_euro wrote above.

Hi everyone!I am glad I was not the only one with this problem. Did you receive an email from the Traineeships Office asking to re-send supporting documents by email (I got it Friday)? Apparently they will review the documents due to the upload fail. However, I do not see the point of that as most of agencies have selected their trainees already.

Dear everyone,Yes I have had the same e-mail as had my friend. She got the confirmation today so it is still worth contacting them if you haven't received this email already.

The main concrete advantage is knowing whether you would have been selected in the first place. I.e. if there is something wrong with your supporting documents. In my own email to the Traineeship Office I asked about the subsequent procedure if one is found to be eligible.

Hi everyone!I am glad I was not the only one with this problem. Did you receive an email from the Traineeships Office asking to re-send supporting documents by email (I got it Friday)? Apparently they will review the documents due to the upload fail. However, I do not see the point of that as most of agencies have selected their trainees already.

I recieved an email saying that they will be happy to review the documents ONLY if I was able to prove that I did upload them (like by providing them with a screenshot), which does not make anysense.. But then the email you recieved is weird... You should definitely upload them again !

Hi everyone!I am glad I was not the only one with this problem. Did you receive an email from the Traineeships Office asking to re-send supporting documents by email (I got it Friday)? Apparently they will review the documents due to the upload fail. However, I do not see the point of that as most of agencies have selected their trainees already.

I recieved an email saying that they will be happy to review the documents ONLY if I was able to prove that I did upload them (like by providing them with a screenshot), which does not make anysense.. But then the email you recieved is weird... You should definitely upload them again !

Actually I sent them a screenshot of the last time my pdf file was edited, I suppose that was enough.

Last edited by giedre.dud on Mon Dec 19, 2016 6:11 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Accidentally wrote in Post Title)

Hi everyone!I am glad I was not the only one with this problem. Did you receive an email from the Traineeships Office asking to re-send supporting documents by email (I got it Friday)? Apparently they will review the documents due to the upload fail. However, I do not see the point of that as most of agencies have selected their trainees already.

I recieved an email saying that they will be happy to review the documents ONLY if I was able to prove that I did upload them (like by providing them with a screenshot), which does not make anysense.. But then the email you recieved is weird... You should definitely upload them again !

Actually I sent them a screenshot of the last time my pdf file was edited, I suppose that was enough.